[미국IPO] ‘New Scale Power’, a US small module nuclear power plant (SMR) development company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange… Samsung, Doosan, etc. bet 260 billion won
As the Yoon Seok-yeol government included nuclear power in the Korea-US economic and security technology alliance under the slogan of ‘Denuclearization of nuclear power plants and building a nuclear power plant’ Recently, a preliminary feasibility study for the ‘innovative small module reactor (i-SMR) technology development project’ was passed, and an investment of about 400 billion won was confirmed.
# Construction period is ‘half’, risk is ‘1/1000’ = SMR is an abbreviation for ‘Small Modular Reactor’, which refers to a small nuclear power plant with a power generation capacity of about 300MW. ‘Module’ is a word derived from the modular construction method in the construction field, and refers to a method of prefabricating major structures in a factory and then moving them to the construction site and assembling them. SMR applied with this method is highly applicable according to demand because only one can be deployed in countries that need a small amount of electricity, and several can be connected when a large amount of electricity is needed. In addition, the average construction period of SMR is two years, which is half of the four-year construction period of existing nuclear power plants. Professor Shim Hyung-jin, head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University, said that SMR is a next-generation energy source with a risk of a major accident that is only one-thousandth that of a large nuclear power plant. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and nuclear power company Terra Power, also announced plans to build SMR from 2024, saying that SRM is a game changer in the energy industry that can prepare for the climate crisis.
Control operating systems and small reactors. Photo courtesy of Newscale Power
# ‘Nuscale Power’ entered the New York Stock Exchange through the merger of specifications … Equity investment of more than 260 billion won in Samsung, Doosan, etc. = ‘Nuscale Power (NYSE: SMR)’, an American SMR developer, acquired a specification company, Spring Valley Acquisition. (Spring Valley Acquisition Corp) and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Through this listing, NuScale Power has succeeded in raising about $380 million in funds, including public offering funds from Spring Valley Acquisition and the amount of publicly traded private equity investment (PIPE). On the 2nd of last month, DS Asset Management and DS Private Equity (PE), a subsidiary of DS, invested 100 billion won in NuScale Power, attracting attention in Korea. In addition, NuScale Power signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with domestic companies such as Samsung C&T and Doosan Energity. It has invested more than 100 billion won over the course of one period.
Core technology NPM, company photo provided
# The first SMR design certification company … The core technology is ‘container-integrated nuclear system’ = NuScale Power received SMR design certification from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2020, and received NRC design approval. It became the first SMR company to receive. Nuscale Power signed a memorandum of understanding with Doosan and Samsung, as well as Romanian state-owned energy company Nuclearelectrica, as well as a partnership agreement with KGHM, a large-scale energy producer in Poland. According to the company, NuScale Power’s SMR saves 90% more land and materials than wind and solar power. The core technology is the ‘Nuscale Power Module (NPM)’, which is completely pre-fabricated at the factory, which is an all-in-one nuclear steam supply system in which the reactor, steam generator, and pressurizer are all contained in one vessel. The company explains that this is a simple design that removes the existing reactor components such as the reactor coolant pump and piping, which has a great effect on safety and reducing operating costs.
NuScale Power was founded in 2011. Led by CEO John L. Hopkins since 2013, Hopkins served as an executive officer of American engineering and construction firm Flour Corporation from 1999 to 2012. Energy, DOE)’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Board. Hopkins received his BA in Financial Management from the University of Texas at Austin. NuScale Power has not shown remarkable results since its establishment in 2011 with a net loss of $23.37 million through March 2022.